It’s been a really good year (for me) 😁

It has been a while since my last blog post but I thought that things in the world at the moment have been and continue to be so awful I thought it would be better not to moan about it. It is the end of the year and is usually the time when you look back and reflect on what has happened. Naturally it would be normal to just think about all the awful things but I thought to myself, I should just really think about good things and when I did I realised that despite everything this has been a really good year for me. I am now going to tell you why it has been good so I apologise but I think I need to write it all down. Over the last three years I have realised all the things that I have lost but this year I feel that I was not only going to get some of these things back but also to improve on them. My main achievement of the year is getting my driving licence back. When I first came out of hospital three years ago I was told that I would not be able to drive for a year. This was just something that I seemed to accept and even though through the winter months I did moan a lot about using the bus, I grew to enjoy using the bus everyday and meeting and talking to so many different people and I do miss it. Anyway it took three years to get my licence back so I think I can say that this has made it a good year. I think that I have the ability now to try and see the positive in things. Just little things. This year I have become more independent in my life. I know this is not really completely possible at the moment but I have made little steps. This year I have been at home most of the time and this has given me a lot more time to try out ‘new’ things. I have done them before, like driving, but things that are new in my new life. One thing that I do now that I don’t think I would of done so much if there was no lockdown is cooking. I have found a really good cook book that has easy and healthy recipes which I have mastered and now do batch cooking every month which makes it so much easier for me to eat healthy now. I didn’t eat unhealthy foods but cooking dinners yourself helps you eat more healthily. Following a recipe and having the patience to try new things is a skill that I have had to relearn. My family tell me that this is a great achievement for me as they really didn’t know what I would of been able to do when I was first recovering from my brain injury. I only know it is a great achievement as people tell me that it is. Two years ago I had to sell my house which was something I really didn’t want to do but knew was the best option at the time. I didn’t want to be involved with it at all and my family did everything for me, the packing, unpacking and putting the furniture in my new house. I didn’t want to look in the unpacked boxes and put them away in a wardrobe. I didn’t want to look through them and remember my old life. This year I started to look through them and I feel that this has helped me to finally accept my new life. It was hard to do but now I feel that now that everything is in the right place. It is not the same but I guess that it will never be again. My family are very happy with the progress I have made this year and I am too. It has shown me that with a bit of help and encouragement life with a brain injury doesn’t have to be all bad. Yes, it has been and awful year worldwide but it has been a good year for me. I hate saying happy new year but I wish it is a better new year for everyone. 🎉